Wednesday, April 6, 2005

Why Don't We Just BUY The Oil?

It's nice to see somebody else asking the same kinds of questions I have been asking for a long time now.

If we believe in the free markets we claim to be exporting, let's show the world by example, and offer to buy their oil. How much oil could the average American have bought at the local Quick-E-Mart with money the government has wasted occupying the Middle East and Central Asia? A lot. It is much more costly to steal oil than to buy it. American elites apply their mistaken belief in the domestic power of government to international relations as well: if America needs oil, they must use military force to "secure" it. They apparently think that if they don't send in the Marine Corps, the people of the Middle East will just leave the oil in the ground and make no money. If they were to do so, it would only be as short-term revenge for recent meddling by the U.S. government. The more aggressive our government is, the more reluctant to trade with us freely others will be. If the U.S. treats the people of the Middle East with respect, of course they'll sell the oil. Regardless, it happens to be under the ground in their countries; it's up to them to sell or not.

Those waging war while preaching freedom and property rights ought to understand this. Perhaps they just don't care.

Exactly. I could rant at greater length about all this of course but let's cut to the next killer quote from the same piece:

According to Chalmers Johnson, what was, in more rational times, America's biggest fear, a Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis, is now being realized. The aggressive position of the U.S. made it happen. We might as well add China to the list, too. The old Sino-Soviet split is healing quite nicely, as the Chinese-Russian "friendship treaty" of 2001 and their upcoming joint military exercises would seem to indicate. The Europeans are also warming to China. They will begin selling them weapons again next year. It's good that everyone wants to be friends, but these new friendships are motivated by an increasingly common view of America as their greatest potential threat.

We've gone so far down the path to empire and ruin that it may be too late to turn back the tide with writing or voting. We may be left with two choices: the bankruptcy and dissolution faced by the British Empire and the Soviet Union, or the total devastation and unconditional surrender suffered by both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. If the anti-imperial forces of this country were to put everything they have into taking the House of Representatives in 2006, immediately halting the expenditure of Treasury money on this imperial mess, and bringing the troops home from their 725 or so foreign bases, we might be able to win some forgiveness for our recent violence. The former soldiers may end up as local cops or Homeland Security troops, but perhaps we'll be spared the airstrikes.

All these quotes come from an excellent article called "The Teetering Empire", written by Scott Horton, which you can read here. Thanks to antiwar.com and to Peggy at the BradBlog for the pointer.

Hang tough, friends. The truth is on our side. We may survive this yet!

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Wisdom

And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.